[ 2011-04-12 ]

Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mills' government is most corrupt in 4th Republic - Minority Leader
Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has
dismissed President John Atta Mills’s
oft-claimed accolade of presiding over a
corruption-free government, accusing him of
superintending over arguably the most corrupt
government since the beginning of the Fourth
Republic.

In a Citi News interview, the Suame MP claimed the
award of government-sponsored road contracts and
other development projects have become a major
avenue for NDC government officials to loot
Ghana’s limited resources. He specifically
pointed accusing fingers at the National
Procurement Authority for overseeing the award of
dubious government contracts around the country.

“The NDC is very corrupt, inspite of pretentions
to the contrary. Those of them who were coming to
Parliament, begging for alms, all of a sudden they
are saying they are building two houses
concurrently and (if) you ask them they say ‘oh
its my ex-gratia that I invested.’ Where was the
ex-gratia when you were coming to Parliament on
weekly basis to solicit for alms? We should be
truthful,” he said.

The Minority Leader said the former NDC
parliamentarians would approach individual sitting
members of Parliament and plead for assistance
because they had “serious difficulties,”
citing their former membership of the House as the
basis for asking for assistance “on weekly
basis.”

Hon Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out that about 60%
of government revenue is spent on procurement, a
major source of corruption, hence the Kufuor
administration’s passage of the Procurement Act
which set up the National Procurement Authority,
designed to check any excesses through the
avoidance, as far as practicable, of sole sourcing
for government contracts.

However, because the enabling Legislative
Instrument has not been passed, it is being abused
by officials, with an average of 60 sole sourced
contracts approved every two weeks, he claimed.

“The procurement authority [meets] fortnightly.
In Kufuor’s time, they approved of 15 sole
sourcing contracts one time and it raised
eyebrows… Today under Prof Mills, by-weekly when
they meet, the average they are approving is 60
sole sourced contracts in Ghana under Prof.
Mills.

“Prof Mills as an individual may not be
benefiting personally from it, but it’s
happening under his charge.”

He explained that when there is open bidding for a
contract, the system is more open, transparent and
accountable, but sole sourcing is very open to
abuse.

Source - Citifmonline

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